Introduction

The following report provides an exploratory analysis into the sales of video games. The data used for this report contains the global sales of games dating as far back as 1970 through to the present. Having such a vast range of games sales allows for a interesting look in to trends in top games across the years in order to identify what types of games, historically have performed well.

The Data

General Observations

A brief glimpse at the data:

The data is an amalgamation of 4 data sets, each with their own set of sales and useful information. The final data contains the most up to date sales figures for each game as of 2019.


Games History

1970’s


1980’s

1990’s

2000’s

2010’s

Games Genres

Action and Adventure Games

Grand Theft Auto clearly dominates the Action-Adventure category.

Sports Games

Wii Sports clearly wins this category. FIFA also highly ranked in this category.

Shooter Games

Duck Hunt, the classic Nintendo game from 1984 tops this category. Call of Duty tops the ‘modern’ games in this category.

Role Playing Games

Pokemon are the clear winners from this category.

Platform Games

Super Mario wins.

Other Games

This is an interesting category as there is quite a mix of top games. It is clear that the Wii is popular, especially with interactive games, such as Wii Play and Just Dance scoring highly.

Racing Games

Mario Kart taking lead in this category. Special mention to Gran Turismo also as the top ‘non-Nintendo’ game.

Fighting Games

Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii taking first place in this category. Classic fighting games such as Tekken and Street Fighter are very popular.

Simulation Games

Interesting result from this category, Nintendogs is top in global sales. The Sims and Animal Crossing also performing well.

Puzzle Games

Tetris is the top classic puzzle game. Brain Age performed very well in this category.

Strategy Games

Pokemon Stadium is the top game in this category.

Regional Sales

All Regions

North America

Europe

Japan

Rest of the World

Top Games

Top 10 Games

The results are interesting; Nintendo fill the entire top ten with a mix of retro games and games for the Wii console. Super Mario Bros, which was originally released in 1985 ranked number two in the best selling games. Taking first place is Wii Sports.

Top Genres

Recommendations